Best AC/DC album?

I dont have all the AC/DC albums but have always been of the firm view that “Let there be rock” is so perfect it must be the best one. Then I read an article making a strong case for Powerage. Clearly Back in Black is a classic too….what do you think, Massive?

Comments

I can make a case for all of the Bon Scott ones – High Voltage and Dirty Deeds being my two top choices.

Back In Black is surely the greatest Brian J-era one, but the most surprising is Flick Of The Switch. I really like this album and rate it alongside Back In Black (a lot of people tell me I have cloth ears when I spout this theory)

Razor’s Edge is the best of the later years (apart from the aforementioned and recommended Flick Of The Switch) featuring the brilliant Thunderstruck – probably the last “real” AC/DC song with some guts to it.

The single Touch Too Much was my way in to the band when it was released (Iwas 12, and it was one of the firsts records I bought and became obsessed with). I still like HtH, but quickly learned to prefer my AC/DC with a little more grit.

Interviewer: What do you say to accusations that all your albums sound the same?
Angus Young: *shrugs happily* Same band!

I’m always amazed they haven’t made a Best Of and spent the rest of their lives counting the ensuing money. I know there was the Iron man soundtrack or whatever, and Back In Black, to me, feels like a Best Of, but an “AC/DC Greatest Hits” would walk off the shelves.

Dirty Deed Done Dirt Cheap….the sound of the bands bar roots.
To my ears the best of the Vanda &Young produced era and not a duffer on the disc.
Worth buying for Problem Child and Squealer alone and i swear you can here Angus’s tubes rattling on the Ride On solos.
A much grittier sounding album campared to later Mutt Lange produced albums….Mutt even told Angus what notes to play….bet that went down well.

Rigid is of course completely right about Fly one the Wall being shite….and wrong about Flick of the Switch being good.

Problem Child was a track on Dirty Deeds first.
It replaced Crabsody In Blue on the CD version of Let There Be Rock due to Crabsody’s suspect content
I guess the “take the bitch…for an appointment” line was a step too far.

I bought all the Bon era plus BIB and made my own conpilation which is the one is listen to. Always found all of the album too patchy for repeat listens.
Read that AC DC regarded a best of as the end of the road. Cant be far off. Hope it is a double. Best of Bon / Best of Brian. Make that a threefer.. Best live too

The Back In Black myth:
Much of the sketch/outline/demoing had been done by February 1980 when Bon Scott died.
He’d even left behind a cache of lyrics which Brian finished off.

Argument For: it was done very quickly, and Brian had never really written lyrics before

Argument Against: AC/DC always come over as a workmanlike honest unit – if they wanted to, they probably could’ve knocked out something this accomplished in two months
(it’s only 3 chords and some salacious words!)

I agree.
The band were pretty cut up at losing Bon, and even considered giving up completely.
The choice of the plain black cover was, supposedly, a mark of respect to him, so why would they use his work without proper credit?

I know what you mean but if there was a trace element of Bon in there you can be sure there would have been endless legal challenges over it. Where there’s a hit, there’s a writ etc. Third best selling album ever? Come on.

It’s a while since I read all the gossip on this, but I believe there are ongoing payments to Bon’s family in connection with BiB. I don’t know the insurance and outs, but I do know that the lyrical playfulness of the lyrics on BiB very quickly disappeared post BiB.

Bon era, Highway To Hell and Powerage, Johnson era For Those About and Back In Black. Too many albums though have a handful of good tracks and a whole lot of filler, especially the later ones. As mentioned above, surprising that a best of has never appeared as it would surely be a massive seller ( you have to resort to live albums at present ), and that they’ve never gone down the deluxe reissues route. Seen a few rumours that new material is being recorded with Johnson and Rudd back in the fold.

The nearest they came to a Best Of / Greatest Hits package was the Iron Man 2 soundtrack.
I read something somewhere where Angus said there was no need for such a package as the albums stand on their own right (and are obviously selling well enough not to need another income stream)

Another vote for Powerage. Just over half of High Voltage through to around half of For Those About to Rock is a hell of a good run, but something about the bristling confidence and give-no-fucks attitude of Powerage has the edge for me.

Sorry, late to this thread.
For me…
Powerage, HTH and BIB are the big three, and IYWB… is as incendiary a live album as there is.
I seem to be in the minority that I could never get on with FTATR, I just found it a bit “ploddy”.
I quite liked FOTS, though, Guns for Hire especially is a great set-opener. (And indeed was the first song I ever heard them play live). After that. it’s best described as “patchy”.

I think the bottom line is, there are many answers to the original question posed.

I gave up with FTATR, which had about 3 decent songs I think (Spellbound, title track and Let’s Get it Up). 1983 was a year of musical let downs for me – Sabbath (Born Again), Rush (Signals), Saxon (Power and the Glory), Ozzy (Bark at the Moon), Bowie (Let’s Dance), even UB40 (Labour of Love) and Elvis Costello (Punch the Clock). I just wasn’t willing to give the ‘DC the benefit of the doubt, given lukewarm reviews. Then Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, The Cure, U2 and The Smiths pulled me away from metal for good.

I’ve just given Flick a quick listen. I don’t think I need to repeat the exercise.